


Wannabe Your Lover

by Maraudererasmut, shadow_prince



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 90's AU, 90's Music, Accidental Voyeurism, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Boys Being Idiots, Coming In Pants, Dry Humping, Except Remus knows what he's doing, Fluff, Humor, M/M, MWPP, Pranks, Roommates, Sexual Tension, The 90's crack fic only we asked for, hella gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-06 20:34:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18858610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maraudererasmut/pseuds/Maraudererasmut, https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow_prince/pseuds/shadow_prince
Summary: Somewhere in America, Fall of 1997- Returning to University, James refused to room with Sirius in the wake of The Great Cheez-it Battle of '96. They must adjust to living with someone new, Mr. Potter worried they'd both get scurvy, Jamesunsuccessfullycontinued trying to court one Lily Evans, Snape got what was coming to him, and Sirius was the most confused of them all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's note: Thank you to the fantastic mods of this fest, especially for being flexible with my posting date and outline changes. To Lecheesie and RosieLupin for betaing for me. And of course, to MarauderEraSmut for creating this fantastic drawing that immediately hooked this 90's boy.
> 
> Hope you enjoy~

Sirius held the door open with his back, arms straining from the weight of the box in his hands as James backed through holding one end of a mini-fridge while their dad held the other.

“I still don’t understand why we aren’t living together,” Sirius complained.

“Because,” James huffed, readjusting his grip, “if I have to spend one more year sharing a room with you, I will kill you and then myself.”

“That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

“Dramatic is you hiding all of my boxers because I ate the last of the cheeze-its.”

Sirius let the door fall closed behind him, trailing after James and Mr. Potter toward their new dorm rooms. “That wasn’t dramatic at all, it was well deserved. We got two boxes and wrote our names on them for a _reason_. It was a gross violation of trust, and frankly I’m still offended.”

Balancing the fridge with one hand and his hip, James fumbled with his keys, dropping them so that Sirius had to stoop to pick them up, opening the door for James and their dad before turning and opening his own door.

“Dang, this is _suh-weet.”_ The upperclassman housing had two students to a dorm, but each room had its own bathroom.

Relieved of the fridge, James came and stood next to Sirius in the doorway, hands on his hips as he surveyed the room as well, even though his was identical across the hall. “No more public bathrooms is all I really care about. High five!” James held his hand out, waiting for Sirius to set the box down before the two excitedly slap hands. “It looks like your roommate beat you to moving in though.

Sirius frowned. “That’s kinda weird, we’re some of the first here?”

“Maybe he lives locally and was here this morning?”

“I don’t know. I mean, his bed looks slept in.”

“Come on boys, I don’t want to be doing this all day!”

As they turned to make another trip to unload, Sirius said, “Alright, but if you get the fridge, I get the tv.”

James stopped in his tracks, indignant. “How is _that_ fair?!”

“Boys-” Mr. Potter cut in, a hand on each of their shoulders and a gleam of sweat on his brow from the stairs, “-that’s enough. You’re living across the hall from one another, it’s not a hike to get to either item. James gets the fridge, Sirius gets the tv, and both of you get a move on back to get more boxes from the truck.”

“Yes, dad,” the two boys chorused.

They were half an hour in when James’ roommate Pete joined the fray, and both Sirius and James took an immediate liking to him. He kept up a steady stream of funny stories and theories going while they all carried their boxes in,  making the task go by faster, and when the truck was empty, James and Sirius both felt like they had known him for ages.

Fleamont had to practically drag them away to get lunch while Peter finished unpacking his own shit from his mom’s station wagon. “Come on, one last decent meal before I leave you to your own devices and worry about which of you will end up with scurvy.”

By the time they got back, waving from the door of the dorm as Mr. Potter drove off, the only sign of Sirius’ roommate was still his rumpled pillow and belongings strewn comfortably around the room.

“It’s weird. Isn’t it weird?” Sirius sat on the floor between James and Peter’s beds. He didn’t understand how he and James had been some of the first to arrive, on the first day of moving in, only to have Sirius’ roommate be entirely unpacked, yet not present.

“It’s really not that weird,” James answered, not for the first time.

“You’re wrong, I think it’s hella weird. You agree with me, dontcha Petey?”

Laying on his back, a tiny egg sized device held close to his nose, Peter didn’t bother looking over at Sirius. “I haven’t heard a word of what you’ve been talking about. I’m trying to figure out how this stupid thing works?”

“What is it anyway?”

“A Tamagotchi.”

“Ohhhh, aren’t those for girls?”

“Are not! They’re little digital pets whose poop you don’t have to physically clean up. Why would that be for girls?” he asked indignantly.

James laughed from where he stood on the bed, struggling to hang up a Pulp Fiction poster that he swore made him look cultured and adult. (Sirius just thought it made him look like a pompous asshat and told him this on a regular basis.) “I don’t know dude, you’re getting pretty worked up about your little digital pet. Sounds pretty gay.”

“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, before continuing solemnly, “It’s not gay if it’s opposite day.”

Peter finally looked away from his toy, brow furled. “ _Is_ it opposite day?”

“Ignore him, he doesn’t even know what gay means. He just heard one of our cousins say that at the family reunion this summer.”

Sirius gasped indignantly, “I do too!”

Climbing off the bed, James crossed his arms and smirked at his brother, “Oh yeah? What does it mean then?”

A soft knock on the doorframe interrupted their squabble though, and all three turned to see a boy with bronze skin, slightly lighter than James’ and of a different tone. Like that of driftwood that had washed up on the shore, left outside and warmed by the sun. He was standing, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, the movement at odds with his tall and muscular frame. His face was smooth and radiating warmth, with a smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose. Dark reddish coiling hair surrounded his brown face, as soft and defying of gravity as a cloud.

“Uhhh, sorry, do any a y’all know why my door is open?” he asked with a slightly southern drawl and a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder toward where Sirius had left his bedroom door open.

Sirius sat silently on the floor, mouth hanging slightly open as he blatantly stared at the boy, until James aimed a kick at his shin. “Ow, fuck! Oh, uh. Sorry, I left it open while I just popped over here to give these two shit.”

“Oh!” The boy’s surprise quickly transformed to a sunny smile that exposed a single dimple on his left cheek. “We must be roommates then, my name’s Remus.” He held out his hand as Sirius finally got up and crossed the room to him, shaking it and noting the feeling of dirt, calluses, and rough skin beneath his own smooth palm.

“Sirius,” he replied, before self-consciously withdrawing his hand and shoving it in his pocket. “This is my brother James and that’s Peter. We were just about to go to the mess hall for dinner-”

“We were?” James asked, but cut off with a choked groan when Sirius stepped on his foot in his Doc Martens.

“Did you wanna come with us?”

Amber eyes flicked back and forth between he and James, before Remus shrugged. “Sure, I was just coming to drop my stuff off before I go eat anyway.”

They broke off into organized chaos at the agreement. Peter was digging for socks and a matching pair of shoes, James had already laid his wallet down somewhere and couldn’t find it, and Sirius hovered in the doorway of his own room. He kept stealing glances at Remus, just to look away quickly, as the other put away a bag and changed his shirt.

The sun was warm and still high in the September sky as they walked across campus together, steadily growing more comfortable in each other’s presence. James stopped suddenly at the entrance to the dining hall, causing Sirius, Remus, and Peter to comically run into his back one after the other. As soon as he heard his brother sigh dreamily, Sirius groaned, running a hand down his face before shoving James out of the way.

A bright shock of red hair ahead of them confirmed his suspicion. “It’s too early in the semester for this,” Sirius said as he pressed forward.

“The semester hasn’t even started yet,” Peter pointed out.

“Exactly,” Sirius agreed, showing the attendant his student ID.

“I’m lost,” Remus confessed, scowling.

James sighed again, staring off into the distance. “This is it boys. This is the year I woo Lily Evans.”

“You’re right,” Peter stage whispered to Sirius, “it _is_ too early in the semester for this.”

He nodded sagely now that they had reached an understanding.

In an attempt to change the subject, Peter said, “So, on a completely different topic, not at all related to dating girls-”

Remus cocked his head. “Wait, are you gay?” he asked with genuine curiosity, a night and day contrast to James’ earlier joking comment.

Peter huffed, indignant, “Why do people keep asking me that?!”

Holding his hands up in defeat, the other smiled genially. “Just askin’. Continue.”

“Moon landing: real or faked?”

Sirius lost it laughing at the look of horror on James’ face. “How is _that_ more important than the lovely Lily Evans?!” he demanded.

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Sirius paused for dramatic effect, “I could be convinced fake, but have never given it much thought?”

James gasped in betrayal, clutching his chest.

“Are you having a heart attack, Potter?”

Choking on his own spit, James spun around coughing, his face brilliantly red. “N-no, Lily. I’m alright. Just, offended that Sirius here thinks the moon landing could have been faked, can you believe that? I, for one, stand by the monumental achievement of our great nation, filled with scientific-aaaaand you’re gone. Great talk…”

Sirius laughed so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes, but quickly found himself short of breath for an entirely different reason. Remus had braced an arm on his shoulder, doubled over as he was from his own guffaws. Sirius’ fingers itched to reach out and steady the boy, but he shoved them into his pockets instead, careful not to pull too far away.

“If you think _that_ is going to win over Lily Evans, you have another thing comin’,” Remus declared, pulling himself together.

Before James could interrogate Remus, Peter quickly picked up where they left off, rattling off all the reasons that it was obviously faked, (“aren’t you a history major?” “yes, what’s your point?”) but Sirius repeatedly found himself more engrossed in the way that Remus walked or the way the corner of his mouth tilted up in a half smile. He was insanely curious to know _everything_ about this boy that he’d be living with for the next nine months. And he _liked_ Peter, he really did, but at this particular moment he wanted him to shut up and for Remus to be the one getting worked up and passionate about literally anything.

“You’re staring at me.”

Jerking, Sirius struggled to find an excuse, but was saved (or cursed) by James. “He wants to know how you managed to move in before us. It’s been bugging him all day, since we were some of the first ones here.”

“Oh! I’m on the baseball team. I’ve been moved in for a few weeks because of training.”

Blinking rapidly, Sirius tried to reconcile the fact that Remus was an _athlete_ with the guy sitting across from him. Athlete had always been a negative to him, with the exception of James. James was _athletic_ but he wasn’t the stereotypical _athlete_ at their school.

He wasn’t a pompous, arrogant prick who thought he could get by on his muscles and tackling ability alone. (Although, Lily Evans had definitely called him a pompous arrogant prick a number of times last year, but what did she know?) He didn’t gloat about the beers snuck into their dorms at their all boys academy and he didn’t sneak out to the girls’ school to try and peek up their skirts like a total perv. He didn’t try to flirt with teachers to get a passing grade (he flirted with them cause he was mischievous smart ass - which was totally different because he was a straight A student.)

Athletes were the dudes who cornered Sirius coming out of the art building at night on his way back to his and James’ dorm, until they realized he would hit back just as hard as they hit him. Athletes, whether it was rugby or lacrosse or even sailing, were the assholes who asked him why he couldn’t be more like his brother Regulus, in the same voice that his parents used and made Sirius snarl and punch them even harder until they _shut the fuck up._

“Sirius?”

Remus’ questioning tone cut through the dark swirling thoughts that clouded his mind and dulled his hearing, rendering him unaware of what the others had talked about after Remus’ comment about training. He looked up and blinked rapidly in an attempt to dismiss the stifling, painful memories rising up to choke him.

“What?”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m great.”

Remus scowled, his nose wrinkling and head cocking to the side. “Are you sure, it’s just you looked-”

“I said I’m great.” Sirius smiled in an attempt to take away some of the sting, but it hardly abated Remus’ confused and slightly hurt expression.

_Great job, Sirius. Way to make a stellar first impression with the dude you’re stuck living with for the year._

Not for the first time, Sirius moodily cursed James in his head for refusing to room with him that year. Perhaps sensing the irritation and nerves that Sirius must be radiating, James was watching him with a slightly apologetic expression, probably knowing all too well the memories that were playing through Sirius’ mind.

His brother clapped a hand on his shoulder, steering him with a nod of his head toward one of the hot food bars. “Let’s get some food, yeah?” Letting Peter and Remus pull ahead a bit, James leaned over and said low enough for only him to hear, “It’ll be alright. College is way different than high school, the assholes get weeded out and eaten alive. And he doesn’t seem like one of those muscle heads without a brain. And I’m right across the hall from you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sirius agreed begrudgingly.

Despite James’ reassurances, Sirius was still hesitant for several days, constantly on edge and waiting for a problem to arise. For Remus to make a snide remark about his drawings or art history books, his long hair, or the fact that it was a beautiful Saturday and Sirius was sprawled on his bed inside playing video games.

Then, when that didn’t happen, he was suspicious. Because Remus was _nice._ Sure he was abundantly sarcastic and sassy, with a dry wit that constantly caught Sirius off guard. Once they got past the initial awkwardness he teased Sirius relentlessly, and Sirius gave back just as bad as he got, but underneath it all, Remus was genuinely nice.

Almost James level of nice.

Sirius wasn’t sure what to do with that. James had managed to worm his way into his life against Sirius’ will, but was he really going to let that happen again? There couldn’t possibly be _two_ nice jocks in the world who wanted to be friends with Sirius, could there?

Sirius also struggled with his insatiable appetite for learning everything there was to know about Remus. He couldn’t explain it, but even the smallest things about the other were fascinating to him. He asked a million questions, and was mesmerized by the way he moved, the words he used, how his drawl got thicker when he was tired.

Everything about him was contrary to Sirius’ usual expectation of athletes. He never brought girls back and didn’t spend much time with his teammates, from what Sirius could tell. He was a devoted student, frequently bent over his desk humming quietly under his breath and chewing on the end of his pencil. Sirius learned quickly that he needed to interrupt the other and tell him when it was dinner time or he would miss the meal entirely. The hazy cross-eyed blinks he got at times like that, when Remus had been so engrossed he lost all track of time, made Sirius’ heart race in his chest. Maybe just anxiety about interrupting him, he told himself.

Maybe it was weird to notice so many little details, but Sirius had always been an observant and studious person. Nothing about the other man failed to fascinate him. Remus’ blue jeans were old and looked much softer than Sirius’ were, worn in all the right places so that they were molded exactly to Remus’ muscular form. It had been a long time since his Converse had been white, and he wore t-shirts in all kinds of colors.

Sirius frequently would stumble on Remus and Lily hanging out on campus together between classes. Sometimes he would join them, shredding grass by the handful and complaining about grumpy old professors, or even just shooting the shit, but other times he hung back, just watching.

One such day he stood in the shadows, shoulder against a nearby building while Remus sat on the sidewalk with his back against the library. He wanted to go over and tease Remus for the pale pink shirt he wore, or the way he laced his shoes up properly, but couldn’t find it in himself to interrupt his roommate while he sat reading, and in the end didn’t do anything but stare. In the bright sun, Remus’ coily hair glowed more red than black, and his skin was darker than when they first met, a result of his long baseball practices outside in the late summer sun.

Remus looked up from the book that was spread open in his lap, eyes instantly finding Sirius across the divide. A lazy smile grew across his face, lopsided and warm, reminding Sirius of honey on a hot June day. Sirius had grown up in chaos, constantly on the move and surrounded by crowds and cities; in a family where your worth was based on your productivity and success.

The more time they spent together, the more Remus slowed Sirius down. Forced him to breathe and look around, to live in the moment and accept it for what it was, at his own slower, southern pace. And gradually, despite himself, Sirius relaxed in his presence and started to open up as well.


	2. Chapter 2

From first impression, it seemed unlikely that Remus could have been paired with a roommate who had  _ less  _ in common than he and Sirius had. The other boy was loud, exuberant, and expressive. He wore black jeans and band t-shirts, blasted rock music from his boombox, cycling through an extensive CD collection that he kept in a crate next to his bed. He played video games, disliked sports, and hardly slept, from what Remus could tell.

As a group, the four of them got along as if they’d known one another their whole lives. Once Remus and Sirius were left alone though, things were more awkward. Not quite uncomfortable, but it seemed like both were tiptoeing, unsure how to get past the initial newness of living with someone you didn’t know. 

Frequently, Sirius would open his mouth, only to close it and shake his head, diverting his attention to something else, leaving Remus achingly curious what the other stopped himself from asking. Unexpectedly, despite his general extroversion, he quickly learned that Sirius was tight lipped when it came to things about him personally. Remus wasn’t sure if this was specific to him, or just how Sirius was with everyone, but regardless, he learned his lesson not to ask about the other boy’s past or family or anything that came before university. 

He had, however, figured out enough from their accents and mannerisms to know that both James and Sirius came from the north, and from money. Neither gave off an air of exceeding superiority, but the way that they carried themselves, James’ wardrobe, and hobbies mentioned in passing were distinctly different than Remus’ own southern, blue collar upbringing. If it weren’t for the fact that he knew Lily Evans was also a scholarship student, and James clearly had no problem with that fact, he might have been worried. He was glad it was a moot point however, because there was plenty else to worry about with beginning another year of university. 

The next thing to surprise Remus was Sirius’ studiousness. He had worried at first impression of his projected devil-may-care attitude, that his roommate would be a poor student, unwilling to attend classes or study, and then create an environment where Remus couldn’t be in his own room to do so himself. It was with overwhelming relief that Remus chastised himself for making assumptions and trying to judge a book by its cover. Whether they were studying in a group, or Sirius was in their room alone when Remus returned from class, he was dedicated to his studies and possessed an impressive wealth of knowledge on subjects completely at odds with his rough and confrontational aesthetic.

However, despite knowing better than to poke into Sirius’ past, Remus had never been good at letting things go, and the level of obsession that he had developed for figuring out his new friends’ sexualities was bordering on problematic. He absolutely could not stop thinking about how only James seemed to be girl-crazy in their group. That was weird, wasn’t it? There wasn’t a single baseball practice that went by that he wasn’t forced to listen to his teammates rambling on about their most recent conquests, hypothesising (poorly) about cup sizes, or swapping names for who was easiest to pick up for a quickie in the nearest empty classroom.

It was a  _ relief _ that he didn’t have to suffer through that with the people who were frighteningly quickly becoming his best friends, but at the same time, it unnerved him.

He kept trying to figure out how to bring the topic of sexual preference back up without being obvious about it all, but was saved from having to worry too much by James Potter’s inability to focus on anything other than Lily Evans for an extended period of time. During the second week of classes, the four of them were hanging out in James and Peter’s room (in various stages of studying) when Remus deemed it to be a perfect opportunity to cut off another one of James’ rambling analysis’ of Lily’s admittedly creative insult of the day.

“Soooo, Petey. Do you not like girls then? I’m not asking if you’re gay!” He held his hands up hastily. “But just like. Do you like girls?”

Peter frowned, but it was less accusational than it had originally been, and more concentrated. “I mean, girls are fine. Mary McDonald smells nice.”

“Moody Mary?” James asked, head popping up from where he had been bent over his desk and open periodic table.

“Don’t call her that!” Peter threw a balled up piece of paper that got stuck in James’ disheveled hair.

Laughing good naturedly, James brushed at it but missed entirely. “Sorry, sorry. Well, she’s friends with Lily isn’t she? I could totally set you up when Lily and I start dating. We could do double dates!”

“Thanks… but I think I’m alright.” Peter looked vaguely afraid of any help James might contribute, and from what he had seen, Remus didn’t blame him at all.

“How come you don’t go after her?” Sirius was laying on his back on the floor, throwing a Koosh ball (that he very excitedly had found on a random shelf in the library earlier that day) into the air and catching it with one hand. Or not catching it, and being hit in the face, and looking around to see if anyone had noticed. Remus smirked at him when that happened, raising his eyebrows like  _ really _ but Sirius just narrowed his eyes threateningly at him.

Peter answering the question that Remus had already forgotten about caused him to snap his head away from Sirius so fast he worried he pulled something.

“I don’t know, there’s just so much to do and experience in life, I don’t feel like devoting my time to it right now? Like, why chase down a girl and spend all your money wooing her when there’s history to learn! Theories to prove!”

James didn’t stop writing as he deadpanned, “You were up whispering to your Tamagotchi until 2am.”

“...you heard that huh? I just don’t understand why they’re so sad! I can’t stand it if I kill another one!!”

Remus was more focused on willing away the flush from his cheeks than on Peter’s Tamagotchi, but absent mindedly added, “Are you remembering to feed it?”

The silence that stretched did more to draw his thoughts away from his dark-haired and handsome roommate than all of the begging he had been doing with his brain. Peter was staring at him wide eyed.

“What?”

“YOU CAN FEED IT?!”

_ “Dude.” _

»»««

He might have managed to figure James and Peter out, more or less, but his roommate remained an infuriating enigma. Sirius was gorgeous, and he knew it, with his bad boy punk rock attitude, all hard lines and lascivious comments and winks. But completely contrary to Remus’ initial fear, he never brought girls back to the room. Day after day, Remus braced himself for a tie on the doorknob, or the time he would just straight up walk in on some girl riding him, but the weeks slipped by and nothing.

It wasn’t until an off handed comment from James about Sirius never having dated someone, that Remus began to relax and feel more comfortable in their space. Quite possibly his relaxing and being more at ease, also led to Sirius being more relaxed and at ease, which created a whole new set of problems that Remus loved to hate.

“Can you  _ please _ for the love of  _ God _ turn that racket off.”

“Ex _ cuse _ you, this is ART.”

Remus twisted in his chair enough to stare down Sirius, where he was standing on his bed with a hairbrush poised as a microphone and his other hand reaching toward his boombox, no doubt to restart the same song that had been playing for at  _ least  _ an hour now. “It was great the first time you played it. Even the second and third. But I swear on my $200 textbook if you play Bitter Sweet Symphony again I will off you and then myself.”

“You’ve been hanging out with James too much, that’s what he tells me all the time.”

“And yet, you still exhibit a stunning lack of self preservation,” Remus drawled. Sirius narrowed his eyes, but made no move to turn the CD off that had rolled over to the next song while his finger was still poised over the back button. “Sirius, don’t make me whoop your ass.”

He huffed, finally jumping off his bed to crouch in front of his crate of CDs. “Fine. You want something different?”

“Yes. Anything,” Remus begged.

“You got it.”

He should have known by now to be nervous of Sirius’ agreement, but in his defense they had only lived together a few weeks. How was Remus to know that the punk rock, sex-on-legs-looking  _ god _ that was his roommate even  _ owned  _ this CD.

Remus stared in horror, realizing his mistake as soon as the  _ YOOOOOO  _ started up on the song. Sirius ignored him in favor of climbing back on the bed, jumping along with the chorus and singing every single word of  _ Wannabe _ verbatim in falsetto.

Groaning, he brought his face down on his desk, tapping his forehead against the wood a few times for good measure. “THIS IS NOT BETTER.”

Sirius didn’t even falter, but Remus thought he could hear a smile in his voice. When he turned to watch the show, giving up studying as a lost cause until Sirius left for his next class, he was pinned in place by Sirius pointing at him with the hand not holding his makeshift microphone. 

_ “Say you can handle my love, are you for real?” _

Sirius jumped his more than 6 foot frame off the bed, nearly hitting his head on the ceiling, hips swaying as he hit the ground and hair flipping as he crossed the room.

_ “I won't be hasty, I'll give you a try. If you really bug me then I'll say goodbye.” _

He leaned forward, blew Remus a kiss, and then wiggled his fingers in farewell before jumping back on the bed and continuing the song.

Remus was going to have his masculinity and gay card revoked in one fell swoop by a pain in his ass roommate who had no business making  _ Wannabe  _ erotic. When the song ended and Sirius stopped the disc from rolling over to the next song, Remus begged his voice to be steady as he told Sirius  _ exactly  _ how much he hated him.

Sirius cackled, but didn’t turn the music back on. Flopping on his back on his bed, panting and out of breath from his jumping around like a sorority girl at a Spice Girls concert, Remus forced himself to turn back to his desk and stop imagining if Sirius would be that out of breath from a romp between the sheets.

Rule of Being Gay #1: don’t fall for a straight guy.

Rule #1a: especially don’t fall for your straight  _ roommate. _

Not that Remus was falling, Sirius was a little shit. But Remus would have to be blind not to notice that he was an aesthetically pleasing little shit.

“What was that?” he asked, belatedly realizing that Sirius was talking to him.

“I  _ said _ what are you working on?” Sirius pushed himself up on his elbows to look at Remus.

At that moment their door burst open. “Okay, new theory. Hitler was actually an AI gone wrong- why does it smell like sex in here?” Peter asked, sniffing the air with a confused face.

Sirius shrugged. “Spice Girls.”

“Ah,” Peter said. As if this made any sense whatsoever. Remus opened his mouth to point out that it really  _ didn’t _ explain anything, but was beat to talking by a robot conspiracy theory pouring from the other like gravy to biscuits.

Sighing in resignation of a night lost, Remus waved to the other two, grabbed his gym bag, and left early for practice. Maybe he could get a few extra rounds in the cages before anyone else, pretending that the ball was actually Sirius’ The Verve CD.

»»««

Peter was sitting cross legged in the middle of Remus and Sirius’ room, his world history textbook balanced on his head. Sirius had asked if he was practicing posture so as to be a proper wife, but Peter had just rolled his eyes and muttered something about osmosis. While trying to maintain the balance, his hands hovering inches from the edges of the book, Peter asked, “Why does the leaning tower of Pisa lean?”

“It was built on an unstable foundation,” Remus muttered absentmindedly, flipping between two pages of a textbook that really should have been printed facing each other, but of course that would have made his life too easy.

“What, so it’s just too heavy?”

“Well. The ground on one side is too soft.”

“But only one side.”

“If it was soft on  _ both _ sides, it wouldn’t be tilted, Peter.”

Peter scoffed, “You know what I meant. That would suck though. Build an awesome tower, only for the dirt on  _ one  _ side to be too soft.”

“Actually, the sinking started almost immediately after construction,” Sirius said without looking away from the book he held over his head.

“What?” Remus asked, twisting from his desk in surprise.

“They knew it was sinking while they built it. Construction was stopped when they reached the second floor, they already knew it was sinking then.” Finally turning his head away from his reading, he scowled at Remus. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Okay, well, now you do?”

“But  _ I’m  _ the architecture major.”

“And  _ I’m  _ the art history major.” Sirius waved his hand dismissively. “You knew the foundation thingy. Don’t get your panties in a knot over it.”

Peter snorted and the book fell off his head, landing in his lap. “Like you know what knotted panties would look like, Black.”

“Not all of us can be experts on Mothman’s panties like you,  _ Pettigrew. _ ”

Remus massaged his temple. “Can we stop saying the word panties? No one here is wearing panties to be able to get them in a knot.”

“Boys can wear panties.”

“Well, now  _ that _ I guess you would know,” Peter snickered under his breath. Remus didn’t feel the least bit sorry for him when Sirius chucked a pillow at his head.

“Whatever. First of all, might I remind you I’m nearly a foot taller than you and have already proven I can pin you in 10 seconds flat.” Peter cringed at the memory. Remus was shamefully half hard at the memory of seeing Sirius’ muscles flex, jealous that it wasn’t  _ him _ being pinned by the other man. “Second, it’s not gay if it’s in a threeway.”

Before Remus could help himself, he asked, “You’ve had a threeway?”

Sirius sniffed derisively and went back to reading his book. “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but Remus swatted him with his notebook to shut him up. He didn’t have time for another nerf war in their room - he had to get this worksheet finished before strength and conditioning that evening. 

It was already difficult to focus because the Prewett twins down the hall had their door open and were blasting Smash Mouth’s  _ Walkin’ on the Sun _ , while Severus Snape stood in the hall trying to yell over them to turn it off. The twins just kept either turning it up louder or yelling that they couldn’t hear him and could he please repeat what he said.

Sirius sighed, closing his book and sitting up. “I can’t focus here. And I don’t want to stop anything that torments Snape, so I’m going to the library.”

“I’ll come with you,” Remus quickly offered.

The book fell from Peter’s head. “I’m not studying anyway, so I guess I’ll just stay here.”

They ended up finding a small table tucked in a corner to sit close together, knees bumping beneath the table. Between all the glances he kept stealing and his distracted thoughts, he wasn’t sure he got any more done in the close, intimate setting than he would have in the room with all the noise.

»»««

Returning to their room after class, Remus stopped short at the sight of Sirius in their hallway, rather than in their actual room.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing, why?” 

He was actually impressed by Sirius’ ability to very sincerely deliver the answer, while actively taping saran wrap over their neighbor’s door. “Do I want to know what Snape did to deserve missing his next class?”

“It might damage your sensitive southern ears if I told you.”

Without a word, Remus withdrew the pen from his pocket, and poked a hole in wrap that Sirius was stretching out across the doorframe. His roommate glared and pulled the layer off to start over. 

“That will structurally compromise the entire layer, Remus, you know that.” 

“My ears are not sensitive.”

“Snivellus said that Lily has no business being a chem major because girls lack the intelligence to be in math and science.”

Remus blinked once, twice, three times. “I have packing tape in my desk, reckon it’s stronger than that masking tape is.”

“Would you mind grabbing it for me while I finish stretching this out?”

“Yeah, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Sirius held the wrap taut while Remus taped the edges, and the two even had enough time to add several extra layers over the entire door before Sirius’ next class. The smile and thanks that he gave Remus on his way out to class were completely at odds with his ripped black jeans and studded leather jacket.

It took Remus ages to focus his mind once he sat down at his desk. His ears were not  _ sensitive _ (Sirius, you ass) but he understood that what his roommate actually meant was that Remus would be incensed at Snape’s comment about Lily. He had barely managed to get through a paragraph, when a knocking on the door interrupted his reading. Remus considered ignoring it, on the off chance that it was Snape, but he figured the dude wouldn’t have had time to get through the plastic wrap yet. Instead, when he pulled it open, he was only slightly surprised to see James was there. 

Peeking curiously into the hall, he confirmed that the plastic was still securely barricading Snape in.

“Is Sirius here?”

“Nah, sorry.” Remus made a move to close the door, but was stopped by James’ reply and him pushing into the room with a shopping bag.

“Perfect.”

“What’s in the bag?” Remus asked hesitantly. He had learned to be, at the very least, wary of James Potter and his schemes. Particularly when his hair was in the patented state of disarray that it currently was. Fixing his glasses, he looked a bit like a mad scientist. Remus could only imagine what James got up to on those late night chem lab trips.

However he needn’t have been worried because James proudly withdrew, with a flourish, a stack of blindingly neon school supplies from the bag that he set down on Sirius’ desk before searching for his brother’s usual binders and folders that were scattered haphazardly around the dorm.

Remus lifted the first binder with a laugh. It was cheap plastic, that gave the horrendous colors an even more vibrant hue due to the shine. A white unicorn with rainbow wings, tail, mane, and horn flew across the cover with a rather creepy smile against a backdrop of kool-aid purple, more rainbows, stars in every colour of the rainbow.

It looked rather like what he imagined would occur if both a kitten and a first grader puked on it.

James pulled the binder from his hand and immediately started transferring Sirius’ Ancient through 18th Century European Art syllabus, readings, and notes to the three rings within. “Do English Lit, would you?” he asked with a nod of his head toward the folder sitting on Sirius’ bed.

“Should you be, I don’t know, grateful to him for getting back at Snape for you?”

“Oh, believe me, I am. But I already had this planned as retaliation for leaving an upside-down cup of water on my desk last week. So.” James shrugged.

It felt like a gross invasion of his roommates privacy to open the slim folder, which was ridiculous cause they were fucking class notes, but still Remus hesitated. Opening it slowly, he gazed down at shockingly neat handwriting, all loops and legibility between thin blue lines on the paper. 

A folder hit him in the back of the head and he jumped more than necessary for the impact. “You can swoon and jerk off over his frilly penmanship later. First get it in this ugly ass folder, before he gets back.”

Remus sniffed derisively. “You might have the imagination of a crustacean and jack off to Lily Evan’s handwriting, but  _ some _ of us have an ounce of creativity to our nightly activities.”

“You tug one off nightly?”

“That ain’t what I meant and you know it, Potter.”

Wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, James pushed, “does Sirius know?”

“Oh fuck off, do you want to do this yourself?”

James held his hands up in defeat, but his smile was hardly apologetic. “Just fucking with you bro. Don’t leave me alone with the seal.” He jerked his thumb toward the folder of a seal surrounded by improbably colored coral reef and fish.

After moving all of Sirius’ notes and handouts to the new folders and binders, they hid his original ones in James’ room under his bed, before deciding it would be best if they weren’t around when Sirius returned. Not to mention whenever Severus managed to get out of his dorm.

They opted to walk off campus and get pizza for dinner, hanging out in a booth talking about anything and everything. Remus learned more about Sirius’ past, feeling a bit guilty for getting info from James rather than Sirius himself, but it helped knowing how close the two were. For all that they gave each other shit, they were brothers; James wouldn’t tell him things that Sirius wouldn’t want him to know.

Remus, begrudgingly, told James more about Lily. About how they had grown up together, what their hometown was like, and what she had been like as a young girl. Cola went up his nose when James asked if they had ever dated while he was taking a sip. Even after clearing it from his lungs he continued to laugh at the idea until James kicked him under the table.

“I’m just asking!! She’s very date worthy, why are you laughing?!”

Remus waved him off. “I know, I know. She is, I’m not- It’s just. She’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a sister. That’s like me asking if you and Sirius have ever dated.”

James pulled a face and Remus’ stomach knotted, bracing for a homophobic comment. “If I went for dudes, Sirius is  _ not  _ the type I’d go for.”

Covering a sigh of relief, Remus shoved the rest of his crust in his mouth, chewing slowly. “What type would you go for?”

A hand solemnly on his chest, James answered very seriously, “Now I know what you’re trying to do, and I understand that I’m quite pretty, but you will not seduce me with your sparkly golden eyes, Remus Lupin. I am devoted to Miss Evans.”

Laughing, he threw the crumpled up paper from his straw. They stayed that way until a grumpy college worker tossed them out, walking home under a cloudless sky.

When Remus let himself quietly into the room, he was surprised to find the lights were already turned out. The darkness made it easy to see that all of the glow-in-the-dark stars had been removed from next to his bed and relocated to join the multitude that were already stuck to Sirius’ walls. He rolled his eyes with a fond smile, but almost laughed out loud when he saw that the Lisa Frank binders and folders were stacked neatly on Sirius’ desk, with all of his notes still inside them. Vaguely he wondered how the other boy managed to fall asleep with so many glow-in-the-dark stars next to his face, but quickly gave up the line of thought in favor of sleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

The professor droned on and on, but the differences between Baroque and Rococo went in one ear and out the other. It didn’t really matter, because Sirius probably had a better grasp on the subject than the professor did, even if the man had possibly been alive during the time.

He tapped the end of his pen on the cover of the rainbow binder in front of him, staring absently, until the person in the seat next to him reached out and covered his pen with their hand while still taking notes. Sirius sighed but released the pen and stopped the noise. He really didn’t want to irritate Marlene; he had been on her bad side before and it was _not_ pretty.

The next time the professor turned to the chalkboard, she put a folded piece of paper in front of him. He held it in his lap to open and read it.

_What has you buggin?_

Glancing up to make sure the coast was clear, he grabbed his pen and tried to be casual, to look like he was taking notes while answering her.

_Dude. Having a roommate blows, I haven’t had a chance to beat the meat in ages. I just keep poppin stiffies at the worst times._

Marlene rolled her eyes, but wrote back quickly. _Gross. I thought you liked your roommate?_

_I mean yeah, the dude’s great. More fun to harass than James, even._

_Just have one off with him then. That’s what Dorcas and I do._

Sirius choked and was forced to cover it up with a coughing fit when the professor looked his way. As soon as the man went back to his lecture he tore off a new corner of paper. _What?!_

_Yeah, like. I’ll say I’m gagging for it and we’ll each lay on our beds and have one off. It’s like free porn dude. Plus it feels way less sad that neither of us are getting any._

Sirius wondered if this was one of those weird Canadian quirks that Marlene had. Like her love of poutine. Although, Sirius had been forced to admit that poutine was pretty great, so maybe she was onto something here too.

“What’s with the Lisa Frank, by the way?” she asked as they packed up after class.

“Remus and James swapped all my shit.”

Marlene laughed and shook her head. “And what, you’re just going with it?”

“Yeah! Not so bad. I always know which are mine. The leopard is pretty cute.” Sirius shrugged and gave her a cocky smile. “Speaking of cute.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I can’t believe _you_ aren’t getting any and have to spend your evenings getting off watching your roommate.”

The blonde flushed all the way to the tips of her ears. “Whatever, not like your pretty face is getting any either.”

Slinging his backpack over one shoulder, he threw his other arm around her shoulders as they walked down the sidewalk. “I’m just teasing you. Whatever gets you off, and besides, it’s not gay if the balls don’t touch.”

“Neither of us have balls, Black.”

“Exactly. Oh hey, look, it’s Remus! REMUS!”

“I don’t think he heard you.”

“What do you think he’d do if I ran up and jumped on his back right now?”

“Probably hold you up like you weigh nothing, cause damn, look at those arms.”

Sirius shoved Marlene lightly. “Don’t stare at my roommates arms, that’s weird.”

“Ohhhh, believe me. Staring at Remus’ arms is _not weird._ And I am not the only one who does it.”

“I do not!” Sirius said defensively.

Marlene gave him a weird look. “I didn’t say _you_. And if you want to sneak up on him, you better hurry up, looks like he stopped up there with James.” She nodded toward where Remus was standing talking to James in front of the library.

 _What a nerd,_ Sirius thought fondly. Remus had his usual high-top chucks, laced up all tight and proper, with his jeans rolled up just enough that they showed his clean white socks underneath. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his crimson and black letterman jacket, shoulders hunched against the autumn wind.

Sirius grinned and pulled his backpack onto both shoulders. “See you later!”

He took off running, holding the straps of his backpacks but it did little to stop it from slapping against his back. As he got close he hollered, “SNEAK ATTACK!” Launching himself at Remus’ back, the boy grunted and staggered, but Sirius wrapped his arms tight around his neck, squeezing the others waist with his knees until Remus steaded them and wrapped his arms around Sirius’ legs.

“Jesus fuck, Sirius, why are y'all like this?”

“You love it,” Sirius replied cockily.

Bouncing Sirius a bit, Remus settled him into a better spot on his back, while James just laughed and shook his head. “Actually, you’re really warm, don’t go anywhere. I’m taking you with me to my next class.”

Sirius laughed and rested his chin on Remus’ shoulder. “It’s only October and it’s not even cold yet, what are you going to do all winter, Lupin?”

“Freeze to death. Although, carrying you around as a personal heater is quickly becoming my second choice.”

True to his word, Remus started walking toward his next class, carrying Sirius on his back as if he and his books all weighed nothing at all. He dropped Sirius once they reached his class, who turned and walked back with James to the dorms.

“And you were worried about living with someone new,” James said smugly.

“Shut up.” Sirius shoved him on the shoulder and the shorter man staggered but was laughing.

“Seriously though. You two are peas in a pod, I’m almost worried about losing you to him!”

Sirius smiled softly. “You know no one could replace you, Jamie. You’re my brother! And, I don’t know. Remus is… different.”

“Different?”

“Yeah. He’s not like a brother to me. I don’t know what he is.”

James gave him a funny look, but didn’t push the topic.

»»««

Remus sang in the shower.

Remus showered before his morning classes, which meant that every morning, Sirius woke up to falling water and gentle dulcet tones.

The first few weeks it was strange, in the way that sharing a room with a new person was strange. In the way that seeing your teacher at the grocery store and realizing they were normal people with normal lives who needed normal food was strange.

The first time that Sirius woke up with morning wood and Remus’ voice echoing in his head it became more than strange. How was he supposed to wank with the sound of Remus singing in the background? Somehow this question didn’t do anything to lessen his throbbing erection, which made Sirius scowl even more. He must be _really_ turned on for the awkwardness of his roommate being just through the door with paper thin walls to not make his hardness subside.

Sirius cursed Remus in his head all day long when what started as an awkward morning turned out to be the worst day of the semester so far. English had a pop quiz on the reading he fell asleep without finishing. The French essay that he _thought_ he had knocked out of the park came back covered in red ink with revisions due by the next time the class met. And through it all, with every curse muttered under his breath, Sirius’ thoughts drifted back to Remus’ voice and the falling water, and his erection would come back full force. All because he couldn’t _adjust the antenna_ when he needed to.

Which meant it was entirely not his fault when he stormed into the dorm, mood as dark as his last name, throwing his backpack on the bed, and biting Remus’ head off.

“Stop switching the fucking desk chairs, I know you keep giving me the one that wobbles.”

Remus didn’t look up from his paper, focused as he copied a definition from his textbook to his notes “You don’t even study, why does it matter if your chair wobbles?” he asked absentmindedly.

“I resent that, I do too study! On my bed. You’ve seen me do it.”

“THEN WHY DO YOU NEED THE BETTER CHAIR?” Sirius jumped, thrown off guard by his normally mild mannered roommate raising his voice at him. “What the fuck crawled up your ass today? Pete said you were being a douche earlier, and you’re just going to come in here and bitch about a chair you don’t even use while I’m trying to get shit done?”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he sniffed.

“Oh, like you have principle,” Remus scoffed.

Sirius’ fury shot through the roof, his heart palpitating and face flushing with embarrassment at the insult as he grabbed the back of the chair and dumped Remus on the floor, before slamming it down on the ground in front of his own desk, sitting down and crossing his arms.

He waited for what he was sure would result in a few punches thrown, or at the very least a wrestling match on floor, but was unprepared for the amused question instead. “You don’t even have anything over there to work on, do you?”

“Shut up,” he fumed.

“You’re such a fucking child, you know that?” Again, the words lacked the earlier irritation, or any heat at all, but that didn’t make it sting any less.

“I said shut up,” Sirius bit out, not looking over his shoulder as he heard Remus rise from the floor and dust himself off. It was silent in the room, stifling and heavy, for all of 60 seconds before Sirius stood up and grabbed his backpack from where it was dumped on his bed. “I’m going to the library. My chair better still be there when I get back,” he said before storming out of the dorm once again.

Instead of going to the library, he wandered campus, eyes half the time fixed on the buildings and scenery, and half the time fixed on the clear sky above him where a multitude of stars twinkled. He thought they should probably feel mocking, what with how many of his wretched birth family were named after them, but no matter the association he still always found comfort in their soft shine as he wandered the streets and sidewalks alone, just like they used to when he was younger.

And if he slipped into a bathroom in basement of the art building to finally, _finally,_ have one off, then it would have been Remus’ fault if he had been caught. Somehow that thought, of getting caught masturbating in public, or even worse _Remus_ catching him masturbating in public, sent him over the edge embarrassingly quickly. Breath hot and gasping, trying to stifle his noises despite the late hour and remote location. Pants shoved down just far enough to fist his cock, forehead bowed and pressed against the ancient wood of the stall door.

When he got home much later that night, Remus was already asleep, and the shitty chair was back at Sirius’ desk. _Oh, it’s on,_ he thought. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed his alarm and ducked into the hall, setting it for 20 minutes before Remus’ and turning it down as quietly as he knew would still wake him up. Remus was a notoriously heavy sleeper, so it should be enough.

He scrambled to turn off the ringing as quickly as possible the following morning. Peering cautiously across the room, he held his breath, waiting to be sure that Remus slept on before creeping out of bed, retrieving clothes, and closing the bathroom door as quietly as he could before him. Waiting the bare minimum that he could for the water to heat up, he jumped in as quickly as possible before languishing in the steamy warmth, smiling to himself at the thought of Remus’ alarm sure to go off any minute now only to reveal to him he couldn’t shower before class.

Sirius made sure to take a ridiculously long shower, so that Remus had to risk missing class if he even wanted to take a piss. Petty? Yes, absolutely. But so was Remus taking his goddamn chair, and Sirius would absolutely show him who the pettier of the two was when it came down to it.

He and Remus didn’t see one another until dinner that night when the four of them all met in the dining hall at their usual table. Sirius was already sitting down, chewing happily on a sub sandwich when Remus and James joined him with their trays of food. Forkful of lettuce poised in front of his mouth, Remus asked curiously, “Early morning meeting today?”

“Nope!” Sirius replied with, what he was positive was, an angelic smile.

Remus’ chewing slowed, eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

“Problem?” Sirius asked innocently. The other ignored him, taking another bite of his salad while Sirius pretended that he could see the hamster running on its wheel in Remus’ mind. But he didn’t even make any other comments on it that night, which pissed Sirius off way more than he would admit.

Disappointed with the lack of reaction, Sirius resolved himself to doing anything and everything to _siriusly_ get under Remus’ skin for stealing his chair. Starting with another early morning shower. By the third day, Remus took to showering at night instead of in the morning, but Sirius refused to give up so easily.

A week into his new meaning to life of _annoying the shit out of Remus until he acknowledges me_ , Remus was crawling into bed early without a shower and casually saying to Sirius, “Hey, I’ve got a meeting early in the morning I’ve got to get up and get ready for.”

Sirius froze but didn’t look up from the book laid out on the bedspread in front of him. “Okay.”

He didn’t tell Sirius he _couldn’t_ shower in the morning. He didn’t even ask Sirius not to. Sirius just acknowledged that Remus had a meeting the next morning. That was all. He was practically shaking with anticipation when he got up and into the bathroom the following morning. Now Remus would _have_ to acknowledge him.

Not even five minutes later, Sirius heard the bathroom door open without so much as a knock. He held his breath, silently cursing the lack of lock on the damn door.

The curtain of the stall was yanked back and Sirius shrieked (though, he would deny it vehemently if Remus dared to mention as much to James) only to cut off with a choke at the _very, very naked_ Remus Lupin standing in the opening. Before he could form a single cohesive sentence, Remus was stepping into the shower stall with Sirius and pulling the curtain closed behind him.

_“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”_

“Well, you don’t want all the steam and heat to get out, now do you?” Remus replied, entirely too casually for someone standing naked in the shower stall with his _male_ roommate. His smile was crooked and _so fucking cocky_. Sirius stared at his lips in that crooked smile and felt his heart beating equally unevenly. The steam formed droplets on the other’s lashes, splattering his freckled cheeks.

His eyes trailed down the column of Remus’ neck to where water gathered in the hollow of his collarbone before snapping back up to his face with mortification.

“That’s not- you know- what the _fuck_ Remus?!”

Reaching past him, Remus grabbed his bar of soap off the ledge. “Thanks for heating up the shower for me. Really saved me some time.”

Opening and closing his mouth several times like a fish out of water, Sirius tried and failed to find any response to his roommate’s casual demeanor. “Why didn’t you just wait for me to get out?!” he demanded.

“As if you would have gotten out in time,” Remus scoffed. “I know what you’re doing. You’re still being pissy about the fucking chair. Well, two can play that game.”

“What, so getting in the shower with me is your master plan? Well, great job, now I’m still pissed about my chair and you’re naked and wet- and- and-” No matter how he tried to focus his thoughts on the argument at hand, Sirius couldn’t get past the absolute absurdity of the situation. Even having lived with James for years they had never _showered_ together. Or been around each other naked except in passing or hasty changes of clothes. This was. Weird. That’s what it was. Weird.

“It’s cute you think I’m not used to showering with other men.” He pointed at his own chest, drawing Sirius’ eyes down involuntarily. “Athlete. Public showers in locker rooms.”

“Oh,” Sirius said dumbly, gaze still fixed on that broad chest with its dark hair that trailed down- his eyes snapped back up to find Remus watching him with a calculating look behind his eyes. Like Sirius was an architectural puzzle to be solved.

“You, however,” he leaned in with a smirk, “aren’t used to it, are you?”

“No.”

“So why don’t you just scamper on off out of here and let me shower.”

Sirius thrust his chin out, rising up to his mere inch taller than Remus. “I’m not going anywhere. I was here first.”

Rolling his eyes, Remus leaned forward again and Sirius’ breath hitched before realizing he was just putting the soap back on the ledge. When Remus laughed, it was low and deep, his breath a puff of heat even warmer than the steam around them as it ghosted across Sirius’ shoulder. The feeling sent a bolt of arousal through him that had his toes curling in surprise and his cock shamefully half hard.

Distressed, he tried to decide whether it would be worse for Remus to notice, or to draw attention to it by covering himself with his hands. He breathed a sigh of relief when Remus turned around to rinse the suds from his hair, but it was short lived.

Sirius was frozen in place, watching in horror as Remus stepped back toward him where he stood beneath the water. He couldn’t convince his limbs to cooperate, to move anywhere else, until Remus bumped into him, bare back pressed against his equally bare front.

Startled, Sirius jerked, finally moving back enough to let Remus under the stream of water, automatically resting his hands on the other’s hips to maintain his balance with the wet tiles beneath his feet. Remus’ hands stalled in his hair and Sirius held his breath, not daring to move, waiting for the other to jerk away, the snide remark, the inevitable accusational stare in response to the way that Sirius’ undeniably hard cock nestled between Remus’ wet cheeks. At the way that Sirius’ hands still rested on those narrow, narrow hips with the sharp bones pressing against the pruning pads of his middle fingers.

Instead, Remus’ hands resumed working the shampoo from his curls. Sirius looked away to prevent the soap from getting in his eyes, and for a reason to stop noticing the way that Remus’ shoulders were broader than his own. He had never been jealous of other men’s bodies before, so why did he care now? He wasn’t an athlete, he’d never _wanted_ to be an athlete. What did he care if his roommate had corded muscles defining his shoulder blades, his upper back, wiry strength in his arms from long daily practices.

When Remus pulled away, Sirius let him go easily, balling his hands in fists at his side.

“Hey, Sirius.” Hesitantly, he looked up to meet the other’s eyes. “See ya later.” Remus smirked, like he had won and played the masterful prank on Sirius that morning instead of the other way around. And then he _winked_ and stepped out of the shower, leaving Sirius standing there wondering what the fuck had just happened.

That night, his hands trembled slightly as he held his alarm clock, before setting it back down without changing the time for the next morning. He jumped at the slightest sounds all through his next shower, afraid that every noise was Remus about to push his way into his _private_ time, he told himself. And if he took a longer shower than normal, it was just because he enjoyed the warmth after getting out of his warm bed, and wanted to make sure he still fucked Remus over in regards to showering before his morning classes. That was it.

His jumpy distractedness continued through the rest of the day, with no reason that he could pinpoint. Finally giving up on studying for the night, he shoved his textbook and notes in his backpack, writing the day off as a lost cause, and making the trek back to the dorms.

The door was locked, but when he opened it was stopped short with wide eyes at the sight of shirtless Remus, athletic shorts slung low on his hips and a fresh towel thrown over his shoulder. Sirius could smell the sweat on him, like he had come straight from practice.

Remus looked up from where he was digging in his dresser drawer and gave Sirius a perfunctory nod that served to break his temporary paralysis. “Was just about to shower.”

“Ah,” Sirius replied eloquently. “Just gonna play some Playstation, I think.” He hadn’t realised that’s what he was going to do until he said it, but, sure, why not. He slung his backpack over the back of his chair - which wobbled, he noted - before crouching in front of his bookcase, running his finger along the slim plastic cases and pretending to pick a game without really seeing the titles in front of him.

Once Remus ducked into the bathroom and closed the door behind him, he breathed a sigh of relief. His mind clearer, he pulled his new Frogger game off the shelf, blowing dust from the back of the cd before pressing it carefully onto the console and booting up.

He was just settling cross legged at the foot of his bed, when he thought he heard something odd. Sitting still, he cocked his head, straining for anything out of the ordinary. Theme music from the game, water from the shower, country music from the room next to theirs. Shaking his head he dismissed it and loaded his save data.

Quickly picking up the orange and the pink mini frogs, he was in the third lane of traffic on his way to get the blue when he unmistakably heard a low _moan_ from the direction of the bathroom. A slow moving semi easily squashed him as he stared wide eyed at the closed door. _I’m hearing things. That’s all. Or the shower feels nice on sore muscles- no! Don’t think about Remus’ muscles._ His frantic, rambling thoughts were pierced by another moan, even filthier than the last.

Against his will, his ears tuned in with the accuracy of a hunting hound, picking up on the changes in the splashing of the water, the slide of wet skin on skin punctured by ragged breathing. Every hair on Sirius’ body prickled and he wondered if Remus could hear the hammering of his heartbeat as clearly as he could hear Remus’ activities.

A long, low _fuuuuuck_ had Sirius jumping to his feet, game forgotten and controller tumbling from his lap to the bed. He winced at the uncomfortable pinch of his jeans against his cock, shivering at the tingles as he adjusted himself before yanking the door open and throwing himself into the hallway. He banged his fist on James’ door with more force than intended, but pretended not to notice the peculiar look his brother gave when he opened the door.

“Uhh, can I hang out in here for a bit?”

His already confused expression twisted further, but quickly went slack and James shrugged, waving him in without question. Glancing around, Sirius was surprised to find a lack of Peter in the room, despite the late hour.

“No Pete?”

“Astronomy lab. He won’t be back for a while. What has your panties in a knot?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously. What’s up? Something wrong with you and Remus?”

“There’s nothing between Remus and I!”

James gave him a look like he’d gone mad. “I didn’t mean it like that, dude. Like, are you fighting or some shit?”

“Oh. Yeah. A little bit. And he’s in the shower right now and I don’t wanna deal when he gets out cause we, uh, are fighting. Like you said.”

“Uh huhhhh…” James didn’t exactly look like he bought it, but Sirius didn’t offer up any more clarification, instead sitting on the floor and picking up James’ Rubik's cube. “Were you playing Spice Girls again while he was trying to study?”

“That was only once.” James raised an eyebrow. “Okay, fine, twice. But he deserved it.”

James laughed softly before changing into his pajamas and sitting on his bed. Thankfully, the topic dropped and they moved on to inconsequential shit. Classes and Lily and fall break and video games, and by the time Sirius went back to his room, the lights were turned off, Remus was asleep, and Sirius had forgotten entirely why he had taken refuge in James’ room to begin with.


	4. Chapter 4

“So what’s your beef with Potter?”

Lily kicked her feet against the stone half wall that she was sitting on as she took a sip of the hot chocolate cradled between her hands. “Did you know he _sails?”_ she asked.

“I did.”

“And plays lacrosse. I had to actually look up what lacrosse even _was_ , but I could just tell it was…” She waved a hand vaguely.

“Sophisticated?” Remus suggested, trying and failing to hide his smirk.

Lily glared at him. “James Potter is _not_ sophisticated. And neither is lacrosse. Did you know they are allowed to _beat_ each other with their sticks?!”

“Sounds pretty gay.” She considered this with much more seriousness than Remus intended her to. “None of this answered my original question though.”

The wind picked up, blowing her long red hair into her face, which she pushed back with a cream-mitten-clad hand. Her nose wrinkled in displeasure just before she answered. “I don’t think I _do_ have beef with him anymore. He just has all of these… rich-person hobbies that I expected him to be a twat and he’s not. And that in itself is annoying but he’s… actually not.”

“Soooo you gonna bang him then?”

“Speaking of banging rich boys, what’s up with you and your roommate?”

Remus choked on the sip of tea he had just taken, beating a fist against his chest to free the liquid from his lungs while Lily watched with no remorse. “What the _fuck,_ Lily?!”

She cackled, tossing her head back.

“We are _not_ talking about this.”

“You two would make such a striking pair. Plus, Marls thinks he’s into you.”

Remus didn’t look at her as he answered. “I don’t think he’s gay.”

“Well, the rest of us don’t think he’s straight, and it’s a well known fact that you have a defective gaydar.”

Remus crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. “Whatever.”

Hopping off the wall and tossing her paper cup in the trash, Lily linked her arm through Remus’, tugging him toward the history building where James, Sirius, and Peter all should be finished with a class shortly.

She barely came to his shoulder, and her pale skin and long fiery red hair contrasted starkly with his own dark features. Despite the differences in their appearance though, they came from the same backgrounds, having grown up together and gone to the same schools from kindergarten through grade 12. Both had mellowed their southern accents in university, but when it was just the two of them, it slipped out stronger in the most comforting of ways.

They walked slow and talked low, the curve of her wide hips brushing his every so often. “If you were a bettin’ man I’d put down money on Black being jealous of me on your arm when he comes out.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “We’ll never known since James will react faster and louder then Sirius ever would.”

“You know I’d whoop all up on him if he made a scene, all jealous of you and I.”

“I know you would, sug. I’m not worried about it though. And I _do_ think you should give him a chance.” He pulled her arm closer, leaning down to whisper conspiratorially at the sight of James, Peter, and Sirius coming out the doors and down the stone stairs. “Could you imagine? You, the wife of a rich man, all looked after and shit.”

“If he thinks I’m staying at home to raise a brood of kids and wait for him to get off work each day, he’ll be waiting until the cows come home,” she grumbled.

Remus laughed loud and long. “I’m _positive_ that’s not what he’s looking for. And all the more reason to marry a northern boy, hmm?”

To his credit, James did not throw himself into a jealous tizzy, but Remus did enjoy the effort it took him not to, from the way his dark eyes flicked back and forth between them to his anxious shifting from foot to foot.

Against his own will, Remus watched Sirius for any sort of reaction. Damn Lily, for putting the thought in his head. Despite his prying efforts, Remus had still been unable to pin down his roommate’s sexuality. And as his own wishful pining grew, he had resolutely decided it was safest to assume nothing would ever happen and anything he thought he saw was him projecting.

His hair was down today and like Lily’s, kept whipping in the wind. Quicksilver eyes peeked from behind the dark strands before disappear behind equally dark lashes.

Peter seemed to be the only one unaware of the awkwardness lingering between the four of them, not pausing in his newest conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination. If Remus didn’t know better, he would even say that Sirius’ glances were _shy._

Obviously Lily was getting into his head.

“Um. Remus? Do you have my English Lit. book? I couldn’t find it this morning.”

Blinking rapidly, he pulled himself out of his thoughts at the sound of Sirius’ voice. Lily had left his side to join James, where they were talking about that week’s experiment in lab while Peter listened with interest. Sirius was standing in front of him, hands shoved in his pockets, chin down and eyes darting between Remus’ face and his feet.

“Oh. Yeah, sorry, I think I do. I can walk you to class and give it to you there?”

Sirius smiled brighter than anything else on that overcast day. “That’d be great.”

“Cool, cool- wait, is that my sweatshirt?”

Startled, Sirius’ eyes went wide, before looking down at what he was wearing. His brow furled in confusion. “I don’t actually know… did you leave your sweatshirt on my chair??”

Remus’ face flushed and he fought against the rising butterflies in his stomach. It was _definitely_ his sweatshirt. Sirius Black was wearing his sweatshirt. The thing was worn soft, faded crimson and their school logo on the front with holes in the sleeve cuffs. It was baggy on Sirius’ narrower shoulders and biceps, but didn’t hang as low on the taller man, barely hitting the waistband of his ripped black jeans. “Yeah,” he said faintly. “I think I did when I went to shower last night.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Sirius answered meekly. “I was running late and just-”

“No. No it, um.” Remus swallowed past the lump in his throat and looking down at his scuffed converse knowing there was no way he could form a coherent sentence while still staring at Sirius wearing his clothes. “It looks really great on you.”

“Th-thanks.”

“Ah, yeah. Um. We should get going to the English building?” he half said, half asked. Sirius nodded mutely, falling in step beside Remus while Lily, James, and Peter had already started walking without them.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t focus on anything else the rest of the day. Free from any practice that night, he gave up entirely on trying to read and booted up Sirius’ Playstation and picked a game he could do without any real brain power.

When Sirius got home that night, he was still in the damn sweatshirt and Remus was sure that his face must be the same shade of red as the fabric. Luckily for Remus, Sirius was completely oblivious to his suffering, throwing himself down on the bed behind where Remus sat on the floor and motioning for him to pass a controller.

Remus wordlessly passed second player to him and started up a new round on Twisted Metal 2. Even with his attention at least half on Sirius sitting behind him, wearing his clothes, his breath ghosting over his neck, Remus still easily took Sirius out repeatedly.

“Not fair! You cheated!”

“Did not, you just suck at this game.”

Sirius gasped dramatically, clutching at his chest. “You take that back right now, you rat bastard.”

“NEVER!”

Sirius made a lunge for the controller but Remus leaned back, holding it above his head.

“Give that here! You’ve lost your Playstation privileges.”

“What, because you suck so hard?”

“Oh, I’ll show you a hard suck,” Sirius leered.

Remus’ gut twisted and he was distracted long enough for Sirius to tackle him to the ground. “You don’t even know what that means.”

“Doesn’t matter, does it, distracted you!” Sirius grinned triumphantly. He was sprawled on top of Remus, one hand braced next to his ribs and the other holding the controller still grasped in his own hand and above his head. Stretched as he was, the sweatshirt had ridden up and Remus could feel Sirius’ bare stomach pressed against him like the burning of a hot brand.

His voice was deep and gravelly as he answered, “Shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Sirius froze with his eyes wide and Remus worried he had gone too far, had given himself away, but the other man didn’t pull away. Over his own uneven breathing, he realized that Sirius’ was as well, at the same time that a bright red tongue swiped over a plump lower lip. He couldn’t stop the small choked groan that escaped his own mouth, nor the hardness make itself known below his waist.

Sliding his hand from the controller, Sirius’ long fingers encircled his wrist. Hesitantly, Remus lifted his hand to Sirius’ hip, the skin impossibly soft beneath his rough fingertips.

It occurred to him how everything that Sirius projected was rough and hard, but within the confines and privacy of their bedroom he was soft. Skin as soft as velvet hidden beneath leather and steel and spikes and denim. Crass language and punk rock attitude layered over reverent discussions in the early hours of morning over art mediums and history and old books.

Remus toyed with the hem of the sweatshirt, enjoying the feel of Sirius’ muscles contracting and fluttering at the light touch. “Can’t believe you stole my sweatshirt,” he murmured low in the mere inches between them.

“Can’t believe you stripped and left your clothes on my chair,” Sirius challenged but his voice wavered.

Opening his mouth to make a comment about stripping, Remus was cut off by a knocking on their door. Sirius startled, releasing Remus’ wrist and scrambling off of him. His eyes were wild and he made no excuse as he strode into the bathroom, shutting the door with too much force and leaving Remus to slam his fist into the floor.

Climbing to his feet, he reluctantly yanked the door open, not even bothering to see who it was before biting out a furious, “What?!”

James’ eyebrows disappeared behind his wild hair, hands automatically rising in a placating gesture. “Whoahhh, sorry! Did I interrupt a good wank session? Fuck, I’m just returning The Birdcage.”

“Did you remember to rewind it this time?”

“What do you take me for?”

Grabbing the VHS from the other’s still raised hands he growled, “You know what, I don’t care. Go away.” Slamming the door and locking it again, he tossed the movie on Sirius’ bed. Stripping and turning off the light off, he left the video game running and climbed in bed, rolling to face the wall. In the bathroom, Remus heard the shower turn on, but was asleep before Sirius returned to the bedroom.

»»««

Neither of them mentioned what had happened - or _not_ happened - that day, but Remus felt like every moment, every look, was weighted now. At first he thought he was imagining it, but regularly occurring wrestling matches now included touches that seemed to linger just a few seconds longer. Anytime Remus caught Sirius watching him, instead of his usual smirks or winks, Sirius would quickly look away flustered with a blush painting his pale cheeks. And when Sirius caught _Remus_ staring, well. There was no accusation in his gaze, like Remus anticipated.

If he didn’t know any better, Remus would think there was hunger.

But Remus wasn’t stupid enough to put a move on his straight roommate. Even if he was, apparently, stupid enough to crush on his straight roommate. Because after weeks of denying it to himself and then weeks more of denying it to Lily’s perceptive gaze and snarky comments, Remus couldn’t deny it any longer. He had an honest to God crush on Sirius Black.

It would have been easy enough to keep it all under wraps if Sirius hadn’t done little things to egg him on. Like continuing to wear Remus’ sweatshirt. _(Stop leaving your shit on my desk then!)_ Being overly touchy with Remus in a way that he hadn’t been when they first met, although surely that was just from being as close as they were now.

He almost hit his breaking point when James locked him and Sirius in a storage closet while running away from the chem labs where they had dusted both Snape’s and James’ beakers with baking soda, causing explosive reactions. Despite the chill in the air outside from the late autumn weather, Sirius had smelled sweetly of sweat, leaning against Remus in the small space, panting out of breath from running to keep up with him.

Remus was also winded, but definitely not from the running.

As it was, he had been chewed out by his coach not a few times now for being distracted at practice, for being late to the cages, missing a morning class because he and Sirius had stayed up late watching The Birdcage for the third time that month. He knew that he had to get his act together - refocus on the real reason he was there, on classes and on baseball. That he stood to lose his scholarship if they didn’t think he was taking it seriously enough.

But there was something so intoxicating about Sirius Black, that no matter how he swore up and down to himself he would let him go. That he would move on and refocus, that it was just a crush he could easily put aside. Everytime he entered their dorm, he was pinned in place by silver eyes, bright as a full moon in the midnight sky, and left helpless to the hopeless case.

So when Sirius came up with a new idea to get Snape back for his latest round of misogynistic comments, Remus doesn’t even glance toward the paper due in two days. He shouldered his backpack and allowed himself to be pulled along by the wrist, the feeling of his fingers on his skin branding him around the wrist, marking him as Sirius’ with every pound of his pulse against the pad of Sirius’ ring finger.

They had set up a completely inconspicuous textbook wall on the table in front of them, where they had their heads bent together over a notebook filled with calculations for the length and width of the hallway stretching from the Prewitt twins’ dorm door, past Snivellus Snape’s door, to their dorm, the resulting area of said space, and the diameter of your standard styrofoam cup. Sirius was talking about the supplies, but doodling stars on Remus’ hand, and he made no move to stop him.

“You’re Sirius Black, right?”

A high pitched voice interrupted their low murmurs, and Remus instantly wanted to divert some of the water supply for their prank to pouring it over the girls head for being the cause of Sirius’ face pulling away from where it had been hovering practically cheek to cheek with is own.

Sirius looked at him in confusion, before looking at the girl hovering at the edge of their table. “Uhh, yeah?”

“You gave the speech at the exhibition opening for perspective and proportion in Ancient Greek Temples!” the girl exclaimed. “It was _so_ interesting.”

“Oh. Thanks. Remus actually helped me with it!”

Barely sparing a glance for him, she quickly regathered her composure, resting a hand on the back of Sirius’ chair and cocking her hip flirtatiously to the side. “Art History is such a sophisticated major, I’d love to learn more about it.”

Remus swallowed the awful taste in his mouth at watching this random girl hit on Sirius. He should have known this would happen eventually, but he definitely had never anticipated it happening in _front_ of him. Which was stupid; he and Sirius were together all the time, when else would someone hit on him? Of course it would happen with Remus right there.

Looking back down at the plans in front of them, he no longer had any desire to plan the prank, and started quietly packing things into his backpack while the nameless blonde continued to occupy Sirius’ attention. He divided his books from Sirius’, when usually he would just shove half in his bag and let Sirius fit the rest in his own.

He was a few seconds from leaving when he heard Sirius say, “Actually, thanks but, I’m not really… interested.”

Remus snapped his head up, eyes as wide as the girl’s, both staring at Sirius in shock where he sat looking distinctly uncomfortable. Taking a huge breath and a giant risk, Remus stepped closer, resting a hand on Sirius’ shoulder and drawing himself to his full height. He smiled benignly at the girl. “We were just about to head to supper, if you’ll excuse us, miss?”

She blinked rapidly, barely managing a small nod before running off, the back of her neck flushed bright red, embarrassment stark on her pale skin and hair. Silently, Sirius grabbed the rest of his books, wildly pushing them into his worn black backpack, not meeting Remus’ eyes as he shouldered it and stood staring at his feet, as if frozen in place.

Grabbing his hand, Remus gave him a small tug until he followed behind. Remus led them through the twists and turns, weaving between bookshelves, the whispering voices of the study tables stuffed full with students fading into utter silence the deeper they went. He shouldered open a door leading to the original, historical wing of the library and the pulled Sirius behind him down a rickety set of metal stairs, through the depths of the stacks.

The air here was much warmer, the walls brick, ceilings lower, and shelves closer together. Dust was heavy on the books, left untouched for decades as outdated as they were now. Remus often retreated here to be alone, whether to study or just to think, and had never seen another soul.

Stopping suddenly, he dropped his bag to the ground, before facing Sirius.

“I just- I didn’t- I don’t-” Sirius started and stopped.

“‘s alright.”

Following suit, Sirius also dropped his heavy bag, standing unnaturally still compared to his usual constant motion. Then he was throwing himself forward, burying his face in Remus’ neck and wrapping his arms around his back desperately.

Remus backed him up against the wall, holding Sirius close and running his hands all over him. He felt like he had been starving, as if all of the lingering touches and glances had been food dangled in front of him, yet always denied. Sirius’ breath was hot and fast on his neck, his body arching to press even closer to Remus despite the no distance at all between them.

“Sirius,” he murmured, unsure of what he needed or where this was going, but just needing to say his name.

Sirius simply whined in response, a pitiful thing, high pitched and muffled. Remus was nearly consumed by the desire to swallow the sound. Licking his lips, he held his breath before hesitantly shifting one of his legs between Sirius’. He nearly choked in relief and overwhelming arousal when he felt Sirius’ hardness pressed against his thigh.

Tentatively, Remus rolled his hips forward. “You like that?” he asked quietly as Sirius arched into him again.

Sirius pulled his head back, leaning against the wall and staring up at Remus with glassy eyes. “Yeah,” he answered breathily. “Yeah, fuck, that-”

Remus ground against him again, watching in wonder the way Sirius’ eyes slipped shit and mouth hung open. He settled his hands on Sirius’ hips, gripping them tight and starting up a rhythm of slow rolls. His gaze was glued to Sirius’ face in fascination of every expression, committing them to memory.

“God, you’re so hard.”

“So are you,” Sirius said defensively, still rutting shamelessly against Remus’ thigh. His hands were tight on Remus’ shoulders and Remus wanted to bite his exposed neck. The thought made him twitch, pressing hard against Sirius who grunted in encouragement.

Remus bent his head forward, sweat dripping between his shoulder blades as he panted against Sirius’ ear. “Bet I can make you come in your pants just like this.” He could’ve sworn he felt the other man’s cock twitch through his pants.

“I’ll make you come in yours first,” Sirius challenged.

If Remus had any blood left in his head rather than his, well. Other head. He would have made some attempt to figure out where this was going and if Sirius liked him too, but as it stood, the only things he could think about were how hard his cock was, painfully constrained in his pants, and how equally hard he could feel Sirius was against him.

He turned, pressing his forehead against Sirius’ temple and breathing in his musk and sweat. “You’re on,” he growled.

Sirius slid his hands down and gripped him by the ass, awkwardly trying to shift their positions until Remus got the picture and lined their hips up square, the feeling of Sirius’ bulge pressing directly against his own sent tingles like electricity down his spine.

With Remus no longer in control, and Sirius trying his damndest to get him off first, their rhythm lost all coherence and became a frantic battle, which detracted nothing at all from how it felt after months of pent up frustration. Sirius squeezed his ass encouragingly and Remus nearly lost it, choking off his groan in fear that he wouldn’t be able to remain quiet. Even though this section of the library was rarely frequented, the last thing Remus needed was to be loud enough to draw attention and have someone come looking for the source of commotion.

Throwing caution and self-consciousness to the wind, Remus tangled a hand in Sirius’ long hair, gripping at the root and giving a tug. Sirius gasped, eyes wide and fixed on Remus, his body going stiff before trembling. The sight of him falling apart was enough to tip Remus over the edge, grinding against Sirius a moment longer until he lost all control, shaking and holding Sirius against him desperately.

Sirius moved his hands from his ass to his hips, holding lightly as Remus leaned heavily against him. They both were gasping, chests heaving, and Remus couldn’t remember the last time he had been this out of breath. His heart was pounding hard enough that he worried it would beat right out of his chest, and he could feel Sirius’ pulse in his neck beating equally erratically. Pulling back, he saw that Sirius looked absolutely wrecked, and Remus was sure he had never looked more gorgeous than he did right then.

A hand on his neck, Sirius pulled him in lazily until their lips met sloppily. The kiss was messy and misaligned. They were both too out of breath to make it long without breaking for gasping lungfuls of air, only to kiss just as poorly again, but Remus was sure he had never had a better kiss. That none had made his chest burn as hotly, or stomach flutter with nerves as these ones did.

When they finally drew back, Remus touched Sirius’ kiss swollen lips in wonder.

Sirius’ voice was just as wreck as his appearance, “Marlene was right. Shoulda done this with you ages ago.”

Remus just laughed quietly in relief.


End file.
